Abstract: Writings, transcripts and sound recordings of Radio Liberty broadcasts, Radio Liberty memoranda and other internal documents,
and reports, studies, newsletters, printed matter, and photographs, relating to Radio Liberty broadcasts to the Soviet Union,
and to Soviet politics, culture and society.

Language:
Russian.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to
copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives
at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see
or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in increments from 1991 to 2002.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number
of boxes listed in this finding aid.

Biographical Note

1916 September 10

Born, Smolensk, Russia (Aleksandr Markovich Lifits)

1933

Graduated from high school

1933-1936

Attended the Moscow Technical Institute for Mechanics and Moscow University Law School

1936

Arrested for "anti Soviet propaganda" and sentenced to three years of forced labor for defending Einstein's relativity theory

Sentenced to ten years of forced labor camps, but released after five years

1955-1957

Senior official in a factory, Stanislav

1956

Rehabilitated

1957

Left the Soviet Union for Poland, then emigrated to Israel

1962

Joined Radio Liberty, Munich, Germany

1963-1981

Broadcaster, Radio Liberty

1964

Author,
Prorub'

1971

Author,
Podkonvoinyi mir

1983

Settled in California

1991 May 2

Died, Hayward, California

Scope and Content Note

This collection of papers of Alexander Vardy (Aleksandr Markovich Lifits) primarily covers Vardy's work for Radio Liberty
in Munich from 1963 to his retirement in 1980. It includes broadcast transcripts; correspondence; labor camp anecdotes, poetry,
and songs; printed matter; and writings. Phonotapes of broadcasts, interviews, and songs are also included.

Born in Smolensk, Vardy had by 1936 finished three semesters at the Technical Institute for Mechanics in Moscow and studied
law at the Moscow Law School. In 1936 he was arrested and kept in the prisons of Lubianka and Butyrka. The same year he was
sentenced to three years in forced labor camps. Released in 1939, he returned home and graduated from engineering college
in 1941.

In July 1941 Vardy was mobilized to join the Soviet Army and fought the Germans until the end of World War II. He was arrested
again in 1950 as a "political recidivist" and sentenced to ten years in transpolar forced labor camps. After five years Vardy
was released and rehabilitated.

In 1957 Alexander Vardy and his family left for Poland, and later the same year he emigrated to Israel. His 146 articles
and book
The Ice Hole were published in Israel and abroad.

In 1962 Vardy joined Radio Liberty in Munich, West Germany. From 1963 to his retirement in 1980 he wrote and produced more
then 2000 radio programs about Soviet science, ideology, politics and economics.

The largest and perhaps most interesting series of papers is RADIO LIBERTY BROADCAST TRANSCRIPTS, which documents not only
Vardy's broadcasts, but also a huge variety of other Radio Liberty broadcasts about events and people. Famous authors and
Russian dissidents are the subject of, wrote, or otherwise participated in many of the programs for which transcripts are
available.

Also of interest is the material relating to Vardy's publications, including articles and notes about Jews, German and Soviet
media on anti-Semitism and Nazism; and two books,
The Ice Hole and
World Under Convoy, about Russian concentration camps.

The series WRITINGS BY OTHERS contains works of famous Russian poets and writers.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the repository's online public access catalog.